S1: Hello everyone. Welcome to Talking Tech. This edition available from
S1: April the 8th, 2025. I'm Stephen Jolly. Great to have
S1: you with us listening maybe through Vision Australia Radio, associated
S1: stations of the Radio Reading Network or the Community Radio Network.
S1: There is also the podcast. To catch that, all you
S1: need to do is search for the two words talking
S1: tech and Dan. It can all come usually on a
S1: Tuesday afternoon just after it's been produced. Another option is
S1: to ask your Siri device or smart speaker to play.
S1: Vision Australia radio talking tech podcast. Vision Australia radio talking
S1: tech podcast with me. Vision Australia's national access technology manager.
S1: Damo McMorrow. Hey, Damo. G'day, Stephen. Tell us about a
S1: program of Vision Australia that's been going for some time.
S1: The Vision Australia Alexa smart home program.
S2: We're actually about to do another run of this program,
S2: so we're commencing the program in May. The idea is
S2: that it's for people who perhaps haven't used smart speakers before.
S2: And the program includes a free Amazon Echo pop speaker.
S2: It's an eight week program. It's one hour a week,
S2: and it's sort of in small groups of usually four participants,
S2: with one of our facilitators, all of whom are blind
S2: or low vision themselves. And it's to to show you
S2: what you can do with a smart speaker. The beauty
S2: of these is that you don't have to have, you know,
S2: massive technology skills. You don't have to know your way
S2: around a keyboard. There's no gestures because everything you do,
S2: you do with your voice. So it's a really good
S2: way to sort of get information, you know, to show
S2: you how to do things like, you know, getting the
S2: news and weather through the speaker, but also things like
S2: reading your audible books, your, um, Kindle books, uh, and even,
S2: you know, how to set up routines so it plays
S2: your favorite news bulletin in the morning and you know,
S2: we can turn on your aircon or your smart lights
S2: or those sorts of things. It's funded through either the
S2: Home Care package or Commonwealth Home Support Programme or funding. And, uh,
S2: we will be starting the next program in May. Um,
S2: either the 5th or the 12th of May at this stage.
S2: So if people are interested in finding out more or
S2: potentially registering, they can email voice assist all one word
S2: at Vision Australia and a member of the team will
S2: get in touch and, um, you know, provide more information
S2: and go through a few, uh, sort of questions to
S2: make sure it's going to be suitable for you.
S1: Voice assist at Vision Australia. Remind us about the actual
S1: device that you use, the Amazon device.
S2: Yeah. So the Echo Pop is a it's a small speaker. Um,
S2: it's sort of, uh, what would you describe it as?
S2: Half a half a sphere, I suppose, in shape. So
S2: half a ball. It's the sort of thing you could
S2: just sort of sit on your kitchen counter top, your
S2: bedside table, that kind of thing. And there's no screen
S2: on them. So you, you know, you trigger the device
S2: by sort of saying the wake word, which is usually
S2: Alexa or something similar. Um, you can you can customize
S2: that and then just asking it a question. So play
S2: 612 ABC Brisbane or is it going to rain today.
S2: And if so, when and what's the current score in
S2: the test between Australia and India? You know, all of
S2: those kinds of things you can do. You can, as
S2: I said, play radio stations. You can um, read if
S2: you've got we I remember we had a participant who
S2: had been using a Kindle device, and, uh, his vision
S2: had got to the point where he could no longer
S2: read it, and he'd set it aside about 18 months
S2: prior and thought, okay, my reading days are done. And, um,
S2: he learnt in the program that he could read his
S2: Kindle book on the, um, Amazon Echo pop. Speaker. And
S2: it basically continued exactly where he'd left off on the
S2: Kindle 18 months before. And so he was he was
S2: rapt that he could continue to read all the Kindle
S2: books that he'd got.
S1: Do you have to purchase the device before the program,
S1: or does Vision Australia arrange that?
S2: No. So we we provide the device as part of
S2: the program. So we there's no sort of cost to
S2: the device as such. Um, and we also have we
S2: work with an installation partner. So what happens is we
S2: send the speaker out and then our installation partner contacts you,
S2: and they send a technician out to actually get it
S2: connected to your Wi-Fi network for you. Uh, create an
S2: Amazon account if you need one. Uh, all of that
S2: kind of thing so that it's up and running and
S2: ready to use with the the program.
S1: Sounds pretty good. And the email address to enquire again.
S2: Voice assist all one word at Vision Australia or.
S1: Voice assist at Vision Australia. Org for the smart home
S1: program that starts in early May. Good luck with that one.
S1: Thank you. Now, our friend the BT speak, since we
S1: last spoke about it, it's had two monthly updates. Please explain.
S2: So the BT speak, just as a quick refresher, is
S2: a small they the Blasi tech call it a pocket computer.
S2: It is a small pocket sized device with a Perkins
S2: style Braille keyboard and speech output. They've done some fairly
S2: major reworkings in the last couple of updates, so some
S2: of the features that we now have are a number
S2: of enhancements to the editor, which is sort of the
S2: main note taker function of the device. The other one,
S2: the other thing that they've done is, um, an ability
S2: to search through menus because it is a menu driven system,
S2: and often things might be 2 or 3 levels deep
S2: in the menus. So you can now search for a
S2: particular function if you wish. And there's also they've introduced
S2: a way of being able to send emails. So the
S2: device has two modes, kind of a traditional, they call
S2: traditional mode, which is sort of replicates the old Braylon
S2: speak from back in the 90s, and then it has
S2: desktop mode where you can go into the Linux desktop. Now,
S2: previously emails were done, uh, using the Thunderbird email client
S2: in desktop mode. But what they've done is developed some
S2: workarounds so that you don't have to go into desktop mode.
S2: You can trigger a new email or reply to an
S2: email and things like that from within traditional mode, which
S2: is is nice, um, because it's a much more friendly
S2: sort of interface. And you don't have to learn the,
S2: the orca desktop screen reader. So, um, you know, as
S2: we've said before on the show, they do, um, add
S2: new features very regularly. And, uh, it is becoming quite
S2: a capable little device.
S1: Now, you've been playing with an alternate device recently, the
S1: orbit speak from Orbit Research. How does that stack up?
S2: That was an interesting thing. I, I saw one at
S2: CSUN and decided I wanted it. Um, and look, they
S2: both do different things extremely well. The orbit speak is,
S2: I guess, the, the best way to describe it is
S2: that the orbit speak really is kind of a pocket
S2: note taker, rather than a pocket sort of computing device.
S2: So it doesn't have, uh, you know, um, things like
S2: the Chrome or Firefox web browsers built into it and
S2: those sorts of things. Now, having said that, the things
S2: that it's designed to do, it does exceptionally well. The
S2: footprint is similar, but it's a little bit thinner than
S2: the BT speak. And that was one of the reasons
S2: I like it, because I can put it into a
S2: man bag or a bum bag and, you know, carry
S2: it around and it takes up less room. It just
S2: fits in there a little bit better. It's about the
S2: same footprint as my iPhone 15 Pro and probably a
S2: similar thickness, to be honest. Um, it, uh, it feels
S2: a little bit better in terms of finish than the
S2: BT speak. The BT speak the plastic case has some
S2: sort of rough edges and that kind of thing. And
S2: the keyboard is very is a lot less rattly or clicky.
S2: The keyboard is actually very similar to if you've seen
S2: the orbit Reader 20 or the orbit writer. It's using
S2: a similar eight key keyboard, but it does also have
S2: a little d pad where you can go up, down, left,
S2: and right. The advantage of that, um, in my particular
S2: use case, I, I went shopping last week. I was
S2: wanting to try some South African cooking and, uh, had
S2: quite a shopping list, and it meant that I could
S2: carry the unit in one hand and just operate the
S2: d pad with my thumb. I had each shopping list
S2: item on a new line. I find doing that on
S2: the BT speak where you're doing chorded commands. I find
S2: that kind of difficult one handed. Uh, obviously the reason
S2: I'm doing it one handed is because I was being sighted,
S2: guided around the, um, the South African grocery store. Um,
S2: the speech, I think, is a little better. Uh, well,
S2: not the speech. It does come standard with the vocalizer voices,
S2: but it has one speaker, but it's a slightly bigger speaker,
S2: so it seems to me to sound less tinny. Um,
S2: it does have things like a clock, a calendar, a
S2: contacts function, um, an alarm, you know, those sorts of things.
S2: It's got a web, radio and a very good and
S2: easy to use media player. So it does have some
S2: other functions apart from the note taker. But I think,
S2: you know, kind of depends what you want it for. Um,
S2: the other thing of course, because it runs Android and
S2: it behaves a little more like your phone in terms
S2: of when you put it to sleep, it goes to
S2: sleep and doesn't draw a lot of battery, whereas the
S2: BT speak, um, it does get warm and it probably
S2: will still be flat overnight. It just goes into a
S2: slightly lower power consumption kind of mode. Whereas the, um,
S2: orbit speak, when you put it to sleep, it, it,
S2: it goes to sleep like your phone so you can
S2: put it into sleep mode. Come back to it five
S2: days later and you'll be exactly where you were, and
S2: you won't have lost a lot of battery. So, you know,
S2: there are like all these things. There are pros and cons,
S2: I think, as a straight sort of portable note taker device,
S2: kind of pen and paper replacement, if you will. The
S2: orbit speak does a better job. If you want to
S2: tinker and play with Linux and still use it with,
S2: you know, desktop browsers and YouTube and things like that,
S2: then the BT speak is probably the way to go.
S1: Tell us about the price of the orbit speak and
S1: how it compares with BT speak.
S2: Uh, it is quite a bit cheaper. So the orbit
S2: speak sells for I think, 695 US. So by the
S2: time you convert that it probably works out at around
S2: about $1,000. Whereas the BT speak is I think 1199 US.
S2: So by the time you get it here, you're probably
S2: looking at something in the order of a little over $2,000.
S2: So there is a significant price difference.
S1: So we've been talking about the BT speak and the
S1: orbit speak from Orbit Research. Apple dropped some software updates
S1: last week.
S2: They did iOS 18.4. And they also released a sort
S2: of a minor update for devices that are not capable
S2: of running iOS 18, just to sort of plug some
S2: security holes. I think there are a couple of good
S2: features for VoiceOver users in this latest update. They have
S2: a couple of additional verbosity controls now, so when you
S2: are scrolling through content, you can elect to have it
S2: say or not say things like heading. Uh, those kinds
S2: of attributes. And you can also tell it whether to
S2: speak those before or after the name of the item.
S2: The other one that I was quite pleased to see was, uh,
S2: for those who use Braille displays, there is now a
S2: gesture which enables you to do a double tap and hold.
S2: So a good example of where you might do this
S2: is if you use either WhatsApp or the Apple iMessage
S2: program to send voice messages where you want to sort
S2: of tap and hold your finger on the record button.
S2: And then when you let it go, it stops recording
S2: and sends the message. So there's now a way to
S2: do that, a key sequence, a chorded command using your
S2: spacebar that you can sort of press once, which will
S2: initiate the double tap and hold. And then you press
S2: it again. And that that lets sort of releases the gesture. Um,
S2: there's also several bug fixes. Um, and as always, a
S2: couple of new bugs as well, I think. Um, I
S2: haven't come across them yet. They're obviously not major ones,
S2: I don't think, but definitely some nice improvements there in
S2: iOS 18.4 for VoiceOver users.
S1: And at the same time, upgrades for watchOS and for
S1: Mac OS and Probably tvOS, so I haven't seen much
S1: about that yet.
S2: No, I haven't looked into the TV one, but definitely
S2: the the watchOS and the Mac OS. Sequoia gets an
S2: update as well. Yeah.
S1: But certainly for the iPhone and for the iPad, it's
S1: 18.4 is the new version. That's right. Before we go,
S1: a reminder that you can find details of what we've
S1: been talking about in this and previous editions of the
S1: program by going to VA radio. VA. And to write
S1: to the program.
S2: You can email me. At Vision Australia.
S1: At Vision Australia. This has been talking tech with me
S1: has been Vision Australia's national access technology manager Damo McMorrow.
S1: I'm Stephen Jolly. Stay safe. We'll talk more tech next week.
S3: See you.